Louis van Gaal could electrify the Premier League season in England but he
will need to use different skills to those he has shown in getting the Dutch
to the semi-finals in Brazil

The parochial side of us is already imagining winter Sundays in England, when Louis van Gaalwill cast his eye on Jose Mourinho in some Sky-stoked Super Sunday, or contemplate Brendan Rodgers along the touchline at Anfield or swap bon mots with Arsène Wenger before trying to stuff Arsenal 5-0.

Look out: Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal is coming, and only Manchester United fans can feel truly comfortable. Van Gaal's parents knew what they were doing when they called him Aloysius, a version of Louis from the Old German, meaning “famous warrior”. With his box of psychological tricks, tactical Rolodex and talent for inspiring standard international footballers to play like demons, Van Gaal could electrify the new season in England.

Football writers who probably thought they had escaped headmasterly disapproval when Sir Alex Ferguson stood down are in for another dose. Some of us may be making speeches to the mirror to stiffen our resolve: "No, it was a perfectly reasonable question and I demand an answer." There is nothing to be gained from hoisting the white flag before he has even arrived. But we can expect less of the bonhomie that has characterised Van Gaal's excellent work in Brazil.

The two worlds are largely unrelated. Plotting a course to the Maracana with an overachieving Holland side is hardly comparable to a 38-game league season in a country where Van Gaal has never managed. Changing your goalkeeper for a penalty shoot-out might spook Costa Rica in a big knockout game but it will have no use against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

Van Gaal's boldness and tactical flexibility are more transferable skills.

In English league football, few managers fundamentally change the shape of a side to change an outcome. They shift players and positions but seldom ask teams to switch to a whole new formation during the pinball game of a Premier League clash. With Holland, Van Gaal can draw on a natural adaptability, written into the nation's football curriculum. At United he will have to teach Phil Jones to understand each position before he can expect him to leap from one to the next.

None of this is to diminish Van Gaal's mastery, which is backed up by formidable self-belief. His immunity to doubt speaks of a conscious decision not to go through life as a hostage to external forces: specifically, refusenik players, interfering chief executives or inquisitive journalists. Like Ferguson, and Wenger, to a lesser extent, Van Gaal chooses his track and then sticks to it. Consensus is achieved by showing everyone he was right all along.

This is the trick he has pulled off here at the World Cup. "We have a superb trainer, a coach who works magic like this all the time," Arjen Robben said after Tim Krul had come on for the penalty shoot-out against Costa Rica. Hooking Robin van Persie for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the Mexico game showed that Van Gaal has no pets. The assumption that RVP and LVG will be like adoring father and son at Old Trafford was at once blown away by the coach's willingness to withdraw his captain for the good of the side.

Player by player, this Holland squad lack the class of Germany. They will find Argentina a mighty opponent in Sao Paulo. Like the Dutch, Lionel Messi's gang have developed a knack for concealing weakness.

Thus Van Gaal is parading a gift for making many players look better than they really are. In his club career – especially at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – the opposite need applied. The job there is to help players to be as good as they really are.

At United he has a mandate to start again, which is a precious advantage.

He takes over a failed side. But the onus then shifts to good transfer trading as well as expert coaching. Van Gaal can organize and inspire, but he needs the right players to peg back City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

The appointment of Ryan Giggs as assistant manager was a declaration of the "Iron Tulip's" confidence. Why should Van Gaal feel threatened by a junior aspiring coach, no matter how famous? Most would have kept Giggs at bargepole length, for fear of what the fans might chant after two or three defeats. But equally Van Gaal has added another Dutch ally to his entourage: Albert Stuivenberg, the Holland Under-21 coach, who joins Frans Hoek and Marcel Bout in the backroom team.

There is one supreme reason for United's followers to hope Holland beat Argentina and then win this World Cup. It would make Van Gaal untouchable at Old Trafford. Neither the Glazers nor the club's fierce commercial agenda could get in his way.

Here in Brazil he is approaching that point of unquestioned authority anyway, which is good news for United, and a fascinating challenge to Manuel Pellegrini, Rodgers, Wenger and especially Mourinho.

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WORLD CUP IMAGE IS MERELY A CHARADE

A popular saying here is that "Brazil is not for beginners". How true. It takes about a fortnight to adjust to a culture that is baffling at first but then starts to assert its rhythms and moods. Eventually you even track down vegetables to eat.

World Cups are not for the naive either, because the country you see during global tournaments is not the one the locals have to inhabit.

Rio's beaches, about which you may feel you have heard quite enough, are currently protected by swarms of heavily tooled-up police who have largely driven away the opportunist thieves who prey on visitors.

In every major sporting event I have covered I have seen a kind of lockdown of normal life for the benefit of the host country's international image (remember anti-aircraft guns on London tower blocks for the 2012 Games?).

Last week a group of us climbed the steep hill to a small favela in Rio to watch Brazil v Colombia. It was one of the joys of the trip. On the way back down, however, we stopped at a bar and noticed that two military policemen with rifles had come to stand about six feet away from us, presumably for our own safety.

It was intrusive and almost certainly unnecessary: a glimpse of the reality that returns when the World Cup circus packs its tent and leaves.

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SANCHEZ ONE OF MANY TO PASS TEST OF CHARACTER

Never buy players out of tournaments is an adage, but at this World Cup you could spend freely. Most of the players attracting bids are well known.

With modern scouting and the ubiquity of televised games there are few unknown quantities.

The days of meteoric tournament displays have largely passed. A billionaire owner might leave Brazil coveting Mats Hummels, James Rodríguez and Alexis Sanchez – but we knew about them already. For my money Sanchez is screaming to be rescued from the shadow of Lionel Messi and Neymar at Barcelona. Hence the interest from Arsenal and Liverpool.

One extra detail you pick up at World Cups, though, is to do with character. Those players who grasp the magnitude of the moment and want to leave their mark on this great stage assume a special glow. So many at this tournament have displayed that urge. It has helped to restore our faith.